The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0198662297 ISBN 13: 9780198662297

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Sometimes a good quote will do, such as "A man in love is incomplete until he has married. Then he's finished" (Zsa Zsa Gabor). Or perhaps "Marriage has many pains, but celibacy has no pleasures" (Samuel Johnson). Other times, a proverb seems just right, such as ""wedlock is a padlock" or "marriages are made in heaven" or "marry in haste, repent at leisure." Now, in The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation, readers and writers have over 10,000 quotations, proverbs, and phrases, in one convenient volume, the only such reference book available.
The Dictionary covers over 350 themes, providing a wonderfully diverse range of topics, including actors and acting, animals, the arts, bores and boredom, elections, food and drink, kissing, madness, the past, schools, science, taxes, virtue, the weather, and youth. Thus, under Absence, we find quotations such as "The more he looked inside the more Piglet wasn't there" (A.A. Milne), proverbs "absence makes the heart grow fonder," and phrases "gone with the wind." Explanatory notes are given wherever needed, and cross-references point the reader to other relevant themes in the volume. Finally, readers can also consult two different indexes, one organized by author and one by keyword.
Whether you are interested in ambition or conscience, madness or marriage, or business or politics, you will find here the quotation, proverb, or phrase that suits your needs. The Dictionary of Phrase, Saying, and Quotation belongs on the reference shelf of writers, public speakers, occasional toast givers, and everyone else who enjoys that which they've "often thought but never so well expressed."

About this title

Review

When you want to launch a new chapter, win a fight, spice a speech, or merely wax philosophical before the fire, there's nothing like an apt quotation. Elizabeth Knowles has compiled more than 10,000 pithy phrases covering more than 350 themes, from "Absence" and "Achievement" to "Writing" and "Youth." Flip through the pages and there's Sydney Smith saying, "I look upon Switzerland as an inferior sort of Scotland"; Tom Lehrer opining, "Life is like a sewer. What you get out of it depends on what you put into it"; and Gloria Steinem reflecting, "We are becoming the men we wanted to marry." It's a sparkling collection, so finely indexed that it won't take all day to find the quote you seek.

About the Author

About the Editor:
Elizabeth Knowles is Managing Editor of the Quotation dictionaries group at Oxford University Press.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0198662297
• ISBN 13: 9780198662297
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 712
• Editor: Knowles Elizabeth